A Hong Kong-based businessman is selling off more than $1 billion worth of shares in CIBC, and plans to use the proceeds to establish a charitable foundation in Canada.

In a statement, 75-year-old Li Ka Shing said he plans to sell his long-held 4.9 per cent stake in the Canadian Imperial bank as a means of paying tribute to the ties he's developed with Canada.

"It is an honour to have the opportunity to establish the Li Ka Shing (Canada) Foundation in recognition of the warm welcome Canada has extended to me and to our group of companies over the years,'' he said from Hong Kong.

All income generated by the foundation, he said, "would be spent in pursuit of charitable objectives, which include education, medical care, relief of poverty and cultural and religious causes.

An unknown portion will also go to Li's already-established Hong Kong-based charity.

Although the precise timing of the sale hasn't been announced, if Li sold his 17 million common shares at Wednesday's closing price of $71.17 he would gross approximately $1.2 billion.

Responding to word of the sale by its largest single stakeholder, the CIBC has said it intends to buy approximately 6 million of Li's shares, with the rest to be offered for sale through its investment division.

Listed as one of the richest men in the world, with businesses in a diverse range of industries, Li began his career as a Chinese refugee sweeping factory floors in Hong Kong.

Last year, Forbes said his fortune of $12.4 billion was enough to rank him 19th richest in the world.

In Canada, his family controls the Calgary-based oil and gasoline company, Husky Energy Ltd. And last year, the Lis grabbed headlines when son Victor backed away from a $650 million investment in Air Canada that would have made him the largest investor in the struggling airline.